10 Skills To Practice Everyday To Be Prepared For a Crisis

Emotions –

We need to learn to control our emotions. I understand that we all have our triggers but when we can learn to control our emotions, a whole new world of opportunity and overall happiness opens up. The main problem that we humans face is our inability to comprehend that everyone has had a different upbringing. Once we can understand that the person you’re speaking to has had different life experiences that has shaped them into the person they are today, you’ll be able to understand that maybe what they said just came out wrong, or maybe they meant something completely different.

Here’s how to overcome letting our emotions take control of us: When you feel your blood pressure rising and your mouth begin to open as you’re about to lay into them: Stop. Take a breath. Take a few moments to think of what they just said and formulate an appropriate response. Before speaking, take another breath, then speak deliberately and slowly.

Mind you, this whole process only takes a few moments, so it’s not like you’re spending 5-10 minutes staring at the other person. This will take A LOT of practice on your end. Be conscious of your emotions.

Meditation can also help to make us more aware of our emotions. Meditation takes just 5 minutes a day. I use an app called ‘daily habit’. If you can remain in control of your emotions at all time, you’ll always have the upper hand.

Stress –

Just like with emotions, we need to learn to control our stress. Stress can have a detrimental effect on our overall physical and mental well being. When stressed, we aren’t able to think clearly or act appropriately.

Everyday we’re faced with stressors. What are yours? Your kids? Job? Commute? All of the above?

That’s great! Because now you have opportunities to learn to control your stress through everyday life.

Here’s how to control your stress: When you feel yourself getting stressed or agitated, stop. Take several deep breaths in and out. Then think about the situation, is this really something we need to be getting stressed out about? Is traffic really that big of a deal? If we learned to let things go, we’d all be a lot happier people. You don’t have to be anywhere that urgent. Your life and the life of your loved ones are more important than losing your cool over some random person who you’ll probably never see again who just cut you off.

If you can, step away from the situation entirely. This technique works best with work and parenting responsibilities. If your kids are stressing you out, if the kids are safe, tell them that you need to take a moment. Then walk out, go to the bathroom, to the kitchen, wherever, just remove yourself from the situation. Close your eyes and breathe. Re-approach the situation with a smile and a calm mind.

I’m a mom of two young children and I use this technique daily. From experience I can tell you that it really works! It’s also made me far more aware of what my stressors and triggers are, so that I can better learn to control myself and my stress.

A quick technique is to force a smile. By smiling, you’re sending a message to the brain that everything is alright, even if it’s not. Even though the situation may still be stressful, smiling can help to get over the stressful hurdle so you can think clearer and handle the situation.

Knowledge –

Read daily. Reading is definitely a skill that should be practiced daily. Sure, we all read every day, we read the billboards that we pass, the text messages that we receive and Facebook posts from friends.

But that’s not the type of reading I’m referring to. Pick up a book, read a blog post (hey, you’re already doing that, nice job!), read the newspaper or an educational magazine. Read something that will challenge your mind.

Our brain isn’t technically a muscle, but we should treat it like one by exercising it. We exercise it by stimulating our brain through reading, playing challenging games and ever learning.

Gain knowledge and exercise your brain on a daily basis, even if it’s just for 10 minutes.

Gear –

Use your gear. Using your gear is absolutely a skill that needs to be practiced. How often do you use your knife? Break it out and do some whittling. How often do you make a fire? When was the last time you cooked with your food storage?

Using our gear regularly is important. You only need a few moments a day to play with some paracord or use your pocket knife to cut an apple. They don’t have to be complicated tasks. Look at your gear and see how you can use it everyday.

The more we get to know our gear, the more confidence we gain in using it. We won’t be shy to use it in an emergency because we’ve used it plenty of times before.

Using your gear also shows you how durable it is. If you use it two times and it fails, well that just won’t do in an emergency! You need gear that’s going to last more than once or two uses (unless we’re talking about fire starters or toilet paper, those can definitely be one-offs).

Fitness –

Prepper or not, we should all take our physical fitness a bit more seriously. In this day-and-age, we have more opportunities NOT to do something. Everything is available right at our fingertips, fast food is on every corner and our world is ever finding ways to make life ‘easier’ for us.

Fitness isn’t easy. There’s nothing easy about it.

However, it doesn’t have to be hard, either. You don’t even have to leave the house or invest in a whole bunch of equipment or even a gym membership.

Here are some easy ways to get some fitness in everyday: Put on some music (or put on a TV show or YouTube video) and jog in place. Use gallons of water as weights (a gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds). Throw your bug out bag on and run around the house or your backyard (instead of your bug out bag, throw a child on your back, that’s some quality family time right there!). Get your whole family involved by playing hide and seek, tag, nerf wars, etc. Keep small weights at your desk and lift them occasionally throughout the day. Get up every hour and walk around for a few minutes. Take 10 minutes from your lunch break to walk around the building.

As you can see, there are lots of ways we can interject fitness into your daily life. Get creative. If you’re just sitting and watching TV, get up and move while you watch. Multitasking is our friend.

Observe –

Situational awareness is a skill that should be practiced everyday. One of the best ways to practice situational awareness is by observing everyone and everything around us.

Put your phone away. Keep earbuds out of your ears.

Look at the stickers on buildings. Watch people’s behaviors. Notice the cracks on the sidewalk. Look for the exits. Smell the air. Feel the wind. Listen to every little noise. Activate all of your senses and really focus on each one for a couple moments. Analyze what they mean, how you feel, etc.

So much is always happening around us and the more often we can practice really paying attention to what all is going on, the easier it’ll be for us to know when something is about to go down.

You’ll be observing the world around you, plus you’ll be getting in-tune with your own instincts.

Practice this at your workplace, while driving, at home, shopping and everywhere in between. You don’t have to be observing 24/7, just take a few moments every so often to really focus and pay attention to the world around you, especially when you enter a new place.

OPSEC –

We should be practicing OPSEC everyday. Click here to learn more about OPSEC. Essentially, OPSEC means to keep personal information as private as possible.

Keep personal or private conversations to a minimum when out in public. It’s not paranoid to assume that our voice travels and anyone can hear the words we say. I’ve heard some very interesting conversations and if I were a bad person, I could have taken advantage of the knowledge they so freely shared in public.

Keep bumper stickers off of your vehicle.

Shred important documents.

Keep personal information secure.

Don’t share too much information about yourself or your family or your plans with strangers, or people you don’t know very well. When you feel yourself wanting to ‘overshare’, just stop yourself and smile.

These ideas can be practiced every single day. With practice, they’ll become second nature.

Defense –

Our own safety and wellbeing should be taken into account every single day.

Lock your car doors when you get into the vehicle.

Practice situational awareness.

Lock your door the moment you enter your home.

Don’t open the door for ANYONE unless you know who they are. You don’t have the open the door for anyone. They are coming to your home, in your space. It’s your choice whether you open the door or not.

You don’t have to talk to anyone on the street. I know we all want to be ‘nice’, but if you feel off about the situation or just don’t want to talk to the person, say, ‘no thank you’ and continue walking. You have NO responsibility to talk to ANYONE. Don’t let social niceties get you harmed. This isn’t to say that you should never talk to anyone ever again, but if you feel weird about the situation, then simple keep walking, but be sure to acknowledge the person first, even if it’s just by looking them in the eyes.

If you carry a firearm or train in any hand-to-hand combat for self-defense, practice every single day. If it’s with a firearm, practice dry firing. When it comes to hand-to-hand, practice with a punching bag or with a sparing partner.

Carry yourself with a strong, upright, firm stride. Especially when you’re with your kids. Don’t let anyone think you’re a soft target. Be strong, have a strong facial expression and walk with confidence.

Health –

In addition to fitness, we need to take care of our overall health and wellbeing.

Get a yearly eye exam.

Take a multivitamin.

Eat as healthy as possible, though don’t deny yourself; everything in moderation.

Take care of your mental wellbeing by doing things that you enjoy.

Take care of your skin by using sunscreen, applying lotion and general regular hygiene.

Brush your teeth everyday and floss. Get to the dentist once a year.

I know many of us may not be able to afford a trip to the doctor, dentist or eye doctor, but do try to budget for it and make it a priority. With regular exams, ailments can be caught ahead of time and can be properly treated.

You may also want to consider looking into natural herbs and remedies to help supplement your health.

Communication –

How well can you communicate with others? Can you express your thoughts clearly? Are you able to actively listen and properly understand others?

With the age of technology and the amount of communication we do on a daily basis through a variety of forms, being able to clearly communicate isn’t a skill everyone possesses.

Practice active listening. Don’t have a thought in your head while you listen to the other person and refrain from interrupting them until they’re finished speaking.

Before speaking, try to form as much as the thought as possible in your mind to make sure you’re expressing your thoughts and ideas clearly. If you have to stop and think for a moment, be sure to say that to the person you’re speaking with so they know they need to wait for your response.

Being able to clearly communicate comes in handy everyday, as well as in stressful situations such as in an emergency or disaster. If you can clearly convey what you need from others the first time, everything will run a lot smoother and there will be far less stress.